


A Matter of Trust

by RocknVaughn



Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn, Spoilers, canon AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-09-17
Packaged: 2018-04-13 22:46:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4540314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RocknVaughn/pseuds/RocknVaughn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leo's never been very good at trusting people. In his experience, they've done nothing but cause him pain. </p>
<p>Yet, when Leo discovers the identity of Mia's new owner "Hubot 97", he finds himself in the supremely uncomfortable position of not only trying to trust a complete stranger with his secrets, but also trying to make that someone trust <i>him</i>...which is not exactly his strong suit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Desperate Plea

**Author's Note:**

> This is meant to be a slow burn AU that veers off from Canon during 1x04. For now, there are spoilers up to Episode 6, but eventually will contain spoilers for the whole first series.

*01010101010*

 

Leo Elster huffed as he glanced at his mobile for the 4th time in 3.8 minutes.

Across the table from him in the agreed-upon meeting place, Max clacked a staccato rhythm on the keys of Leo’s laptop, too used to his brother’s fluctuating moods to be perturbed by them. “I can see why “User 885” was concerned about Mia’s code dump,” he said quietly, glancing up from the computer screen to make eye contact with Leo.

“They’re late,” Leo huffed, ignoring Max’s statement and glancing over his shoulder at the door. He frowned when his mysterious contact did not suddenly appear.

“Perhaps they’re already here, waiting,” Max reasoned in a voice that Leo knew was his brother’s way of trying to soothe his ruffled feathers. “What do they look like?”

Leo didn’t even need to look at the last text from “Hubot 97” to list off his supposed characteristics, but it allowed him to break eye contact with his sometimes all-too-knowing younger brother. “One 45-year-old man, six-foot-four, extremely heavy build, big bushy beard. Will be wearing a tight white t-shirt, denim shorts and a tracker cap.”

“That’s a very specific description,” Max responded. “I’d definitely have noticed him if he were here.”

_Yeah, tell me something I **don’t** know,_ Leo thought bitterly, but did not say aloud. Max didn’t deserve to be the target of his ire. After all, it wasn’t Max’s fault that his plan to smoke out Mia’s new owner hadn’t panned out…

Max’s eyes roamed the faces of the diner’s other patrons once more to be sure. “So where is this vast, bearded man?”

Leo glanced at the time on his mobile again and bit at his lips in frustration. He couldn’t stand the idea that he was this close to finding Mia and was still failing her.  But then his turbulent thoughts were disturbed by an unfamiliar voice.

“You been stood up?”

Leo turned in his seat to find a teenaged girl leaning an arm along the back of her seat, her head tilted in question as she studied him. It took everything he had to not just snap at the girl to mind her own damned business.

“Yeah, yeah…kind of, yeah,” he responded tersely, turning his stiffened back to her in a clear sign of _Go The Fuck Away_.

Apparently, the girl didn’t read body language very well because she persisted, a hint of a tease in her voice, “Hmm… Hot date, was it?”

Leo pursed his lips to steel himself for another interaction with the annoying girl. He glanced sidelong at her and deadpanned, “Was actually waiting for a giant, lumberjack stripper, so…” He cleared his throat self-consciously and stared at the table, praying that _this time_ the juvenile interloper would piss off so he could plan his next move.

No such luck.

Out of the corner of his eye, Leo watched as the girl’s face morphed from the obnoxious teen he’d assumed she was into someone infinitely more shrewd and clever. “Yeah well,” she said, her voice dripping with pointed irony, “you never know who you’re going to meet _online_ …”

Leo froze as his brain instantly computed the fact that he’d been outplayed at his own game. Shoving down the begrudging respect he felt at her successful ruse, Leo turned to look at the girl properly for the first time.  She was older than he’d originally thought, probably only a couple years younger than he was, if the number 97 in her handle was to be believed. She was also rather pretty, with medium brown hair that fell in waves past her shoulders and warm brown eyes that sparkled with intelligence and sass. Not that any of that mattered. The only thing that mattered right then was if she were…

“Hubot 97?” he questioned, holding his breath and praying that the girl was his contact.

“User 885,” she replied, her response an answer more than a question. 

“Yeah,” Leo confirmed anyway, trying and possibly failing at keeping the relief out of his voice.

Ever since “Hubot 97” had set up the meet and told him whom to expect, Leo had been having nightmares what Mia might have been subjected to in the hands of such a vile-sounding man, of Silas Capek’s voice as he'd said, “Powered her up to have a bit o’fun. Turns out she was a corrupted mod; gone in the ‘ead. Fighting, kicking…Weird.” The memory of that monster’s words had looped over and over in Leo’s head until it made him want to scream.

Of _course_ Mia would’ve tried to fight off such an attack on her body; unsuccessfully, it seemed, since it had directly led to her being reprogrammed. God only knew what that pervert had done to her then. It was yet another way that Leo felt that he’d failed her.  

Now, seeing his contact in the flesh and realising that Mia had been placed with a family instead of a dodgy middle-aged man, he felt grateful; an emotion he didn’t know he still had the ability to feel.

“Cool handle,” the girl said, interrupting his thoughts.

The infused sarcasm in Hubot 97’s tone was so heavy that it nearly dripped from her lips. Inexplicably, rather than being annoyed at the girl’s snarky attitude, Leo found instead that his admiration of her boldness only grew.

“Sorry for the stake-out. Just wanted to make sure you weren’t some psycho,” she continued, sounding just a tiny bit contrite. She leaned over the side of the booth, glancing at Max for a moment before asking, “So…what do you think’s wrong with my Synth?”

Max glanced at her as hope lit up his features. “Is Mia with you?”

Leo flinched at Max’s innocent question. He hadn’t intended to tip his hand about “Mia” just yet…but it was too late now.

Hubot 97’s brows drew together with confusion. “Who’s Mia?”

Max looked at Leo in contrition as he finally understood the faux pas he’d just made.

Slowly, Leo glanced meaningfully at Hubot 97 and rose to his feet, silently padding around the row of bench seats to slide in across from her at her table. He pulled out his creased copy of Mia’s photo and set it on the table before the girl. “That’s Mia.”

Instantly, she glared at him and bristled, “I thought you were meeting me to help me with _my_ Synth.”

Leo immediately responded, “Well, I think your Synth _is_ my Synth.”

Hubot 97 snorted and looked away. When she met Leo’s eyes again, her face was twisted into a sneer. “Sorry, dude. We bought ours two weeks ago, brand new.”

His desperation rising, Leo insisted, “Look at the photo.”

Almost reluctantly, she did.

Leo did not miss the flicker of recognition that she quickly hid behind a shield of attitude. “Yeah, you recognise her, don’t you?”

She looked around at Max with disbelief and then accused, “What is this? Is this a set-up or something?”

Leo picked up Mia’s photograph and held it up so it was in front of Hubot 97’s face. “Look!”

Again, the girl’s eyes darted to the picture.

“Now tell us where she is,” Leo demanded.

Instead of answering, the girl abruptly stood up. “As fun as this has been, I’m gonna go now—”

Belatedly, Leo realised he’d pushed her too far and reached out to stop her from leaving. “No, I’m sorr—no…”

“Get off me…” Hubot 97 hissed as Leo pulled her back down into the bench seat.

The wave of alarm that buffeted him, not to mention the almost electrical charge that tingled up his arm from where he touched her, set Leo’s own pulse racing. “No, I can’t just let you leave; this is important. She is important.”

“Leo!” Max admonished in a whisper, which temporarily drew Leo’s attention to his green-eyed brother. “Stop it. You’re not being very nice to her.”

Leo glanced over at Max’s disapproving frown and lifted his eyes back to Hubot 97’s face, which was a curious mixture of mulish stubbornness and fear; fear of _him_ , he suddenly realised. He looked down at his hand and startled, as if it had acted of its own volition and he’d only just now discovered it. “I… I’m s—sorry,” he stuttered, rubbing the back of his head with his other hand in discomfort. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. It’s just… We’ve searched so long for her that I just…reacted.”

Hubot 97 spat angrily from between clenched teeth, “Then. Let. Go. Of. Me.”

Leo swallowed hard and—though his instincts screamed for him not to—forced his hand to slacken. She yanked her arm out of his hold forcefully and rubbed at the place he’d held her reflexively. She stood up again, quickly pivoting on her heel to move out of range. “I was wrong about you,” Hubot 97 accused. “You _are_ a psycho.”

“I’m not,” Leo defended. “I swear I’m not.”

Hubot 97 snorted and started to walk away.

Leo could feel the heat of the tears that blurred his vision and clogged his throat. After all that she’d done for him, he was going to fail Mia. Again.

“Please don’t leave,” Leo choked out as he glanced over his shoulder at her retreating back. “ _Please_.”

Hubot 97 stopped walking and tilted her head skyward as if asking God for more patience. Then she turned around and glared at Leo with her arms folded across her chest defiantly. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t,” she challenged.

The words came out of Leo’s mouth before he’d even thought to answer. “Because I love her.”

She stared at Leo for a long moment before glancing past him, presumably at Max. Finally, Hubot 97 huffed, the tension draining from her body as she walked back to the table and flopped onto the bench seat. She scratched at her scalp idly and then flipped the brown waves of hair over her shoulder.

“So, _Leo_ …” she said, emphasising his name as if in warning, “why are you so convinced that our Anita is your Synth?”

Still reeling from his unintentional emotional admission, as well as the effect it’d had on Hubot 97, it took Leo a moment to catch up. “Who?” he questioned.

“Anita. That’s the name of our Synth,” she replied. “Why do you think she’s your Mia?”

“That code dump you posted. It’s Mia’s root code. I’d know it anywhere.”

Hubot 97 glared at him as if he’d thought she was stupid. “Please. Synths do not have 17,000 pages of code in their root directory. Even the newest models only have 1,000 pages of code at best.”

“ _Regular_ ones don’t have 17,000 pages of code, no, but she does,” Leo clarified. “She’s…different. Special.”

“And how exactly is she ‘special’?” Hubot 97 used her fingers to sarcastically put air quotes around the last word.

Leo struggled to find a way to explain about Mia without giving out too much about them and their situation, but came up empty.

When Leo didn’t respond, she needled him, “What, is she your girlfriend or something?”

Leo let out a long, mournful sigh and then raised his head to spear her with his eyes. He knew that by now they must have been red-rimmed and wet with unshed tears, but for once, he found he didn’t care.

“No. She’s my mother.”

 

 

 


	2. What's in a Name?

*01010101010*

 

“Yeah, right Leo. That makes perfect sense…except for the fact that _Synths can’t grow facial hair_ ,” Hubot 97 immediately responded with a nod to Leo’s bearded face, “or touch someone without their permission, for that matter.”

 _This one can_ , thought Leo grimly before he raised an eyebrow and amended, “Obviously, I didn’t mean literally.”

“Then what _did_ you mean?”

“I meant…” Leo paused and closed his eyes against the barrage of memories that flooded his brain, “that she raised me _like_ a mother.”

Hubot 97 scoffed. “They couldn’t have even have _had_ Synths when you were young enough for that.”

Leo frowned at that. “Just how old do you think I am?”

Hubot 97 shrugged one shoulder and replied, “Dunno. Twenty-five? Thirty?”

 _Good Lord, did he really look that old!?_ Granted, with all that he’d been through, he sometimes _felt_ that old, but apparently the years he’d spent on the run hadn’t been very kind to him on the outside, either. Leo’s lips compressed into a thin, flat line at the thought. “I turned 20 in July,” he retorted.

“Oh.”

Hubot 97 rested her head into the cradle of her hands and leaned across the table to study Leo’s face. He fought the urge to squirm under her intense scrutiny.

“Hmmm,” she said at last, slouching back against the bench seat. “You’d probably look more your age were it not for the scruff and…” One corner of her mouth quirked up, “… if you stopped dressing like a hobo.”

Indignant, Leo’s eyes flashed as he defended, “Hey! I don’t look like a—” but then stopped mid-sentence as he watched the amused twinkle of mischief in Hubots 97’s eyes grow and realised he’d been had.

Leo sat back in his seat and crossed his arms across his chest. “That’s no way to talk to your elders.”

Hubot 97 lifted her chin in defiance again. It reminded Leo a little bit of Niska and he had to bite back a smile. “And what makes you think you’re any older than I am?”

Leo closed the space between them again, leaning his elbows on the table as he asked knowingly, “Oh, so you mean the ‘97’ in your handle _doesn’t_ refer to the year you were born?”

To Leo’s surprise, Hubot 97 blushed and looked down at her hands. “No, it does,” she admitted softly.

The effect of Hubot 97’s unexpectedly shy gesture hit Leo like a punch to the gut, making him want things that he knew were not possible for him to have.  

Leo was still trying to force the sour taste of regret from his mouth when Hubot 97 spoke again. “So…this Mia…” she said, tapping the crumpled photograph with an index finger. “She was your nanny?”

Mia was a great deal more than that to Leo, but for the sake of simplicity he agreed with her assessment. “Yes.”

“Oh,” she replied, sounding a bit wrong-footed. A long, uncomfortable silence hovered between them until Hubot 97 hurriedly blurted out, “So you didn’t have a Mum, then?”

 _Mum._ The barrage of memories resulting from her saying that word aloud flooded Leo’s mind, each bittersweet moment stinging at his heart like a bee. In response, Leo’s hackles rose, but when he looked up to tell the girl that it was none of her damned business, he was surprised to see that her blush had deepened dramatically. When Hubot 97 finally glanced up at him, it was obvious that she was mortified she’d asked. “Sorry,” she whispered. “That was… I shouldn’t have…”

“I did have a mum,” Leo responded, cutting off Hubot 97’s awkward apology, “but she was ill and unable to care for me.” Leo ignored the surprised glance that Max gave him after this admission, since his Synth brother knew that Leo  _never_ spoke of his mother.

“So that’s why…Mia.”

Leo nodded once.

“How old were you?”

Leo looked down at the formica tabletop and sighed. “Six.”

“But…” Hubot 97 stammered, “but that would make her 14 years old!”

“Yes.”

“ _No one’s_ Synth lasts 14 years, Leo,” she answered skeptically. “You’re lucky to get five out of most models.”

“ _She_ has,” Leo insisted. “My father spared no expense to ensure that she remained in top working condition.” Despite himself, Leo couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his tone when he spoke of his father.

Unsurprisingly, Hubot 97 noticed. “Well, you don’t sound very happy about it.”

“It’s…complicated.”

Hubot 97 sighed and flipped her hair over her shoulder in a sign of impatience before her features softened once more, obviously having figured something out. “So you don’t get along with your father very well, I take it?”

The vigilant side of Leo’s brain cringed when his mouth answered, “It wasn’t that, really. It was more that he didn’t have much time for me.” The truth of those words hurt so much more when spoken aloud than when he’d kept it trapped inside his head. Yet, it was still almost a relief to let it out, to share it with someone—even if that someone was a stranger.

Hubot 97 nodded in commiseration. “Workaholic parent; I’ve got one of those. We don’t get on that well, either. My mum’s a lawyer and she’s constantly going away on business trips, leaving my dad holding the bag at home and he just couldn’t manage it all. That’s why he ended up going out and getting Anita.”

 _Anita_. The name brought Leo back to his main purpose for the meeting with a painful jolt of memory: running through the woods at top speed whilst a nondescript blue van drove away with most of his family.

Some of the emotional pain and turmoil attached to that memory must have shown on Leo’s face, because Hubot 97 reached out to gingerly place one of her hands on top of his and asked, “Leo? Are you all right?”

A shiver ran up Leo’s spine, making him suck in a sudden breath. “I’m fine,” he lied, slowly sliding his hand free of her distracting touch.

Hubot 97’s brows drew together as she stared at her own hand on the table. “Okay,” she replied, sounding at least as off-kilter as Leo felt. “So what now?”

“How about telling me your name?” Leo asked, his voice a bit more gruff than he’d expected it to sound. “After all, you already know mine.”

That smug, sassy twinkle of hers was back. “Oh, I think ‘Hubot 97’ works just fine for now,” she replied airily, the corner of her mouth twitching, but not quite giving way to a smile.

“Well then, how about taking us to see Mia?” Leo countered.

“ _Anita_ ,” she corrected, “and how about no? I’m not taking a stranger I just met and his dodgy Synth back to my house.”

Put that way, Leo could see her point, but it didn’t mean he had to like it. “What about bringing her along to a meet at another neutral location?” he suggested, his mouth forming a frown. This conversation was not going at all like he’d planned.

“I don’t know…” Hubot 97 hedged.

“Please reconsider,” Max’s voice cut in, drawing both Leo and Hubot 97’s attention. “We’ve been searching for Mia for quite some time, and Leo is very worried about her.”

Hubot 97 turned back to look at Leo and asked, “How long have you been looking for her?”

“Almost two months.”

“I guess you really _do_ care about her, then.”

“I said I did,” Leo spat, his patience running thin.

“Yeah, but sometimes people say things just to say things.”

“I don’t.”

Her snarky tone was back. “Yeah, well I get the feeling you don’t say much of anything, ever.”

Leo hunched over as he always did when he was uncomfortable, favouring his wounded left side. He threaded a frustrated hand through his hair, making it stand on end a bit. “I’m sorry,” he said at last, the weariness he’d been holding off for seemingly days catching up to him all at once. “I’m…not very good at this.”

Hubot 97 had the grace to look a bit chastened. She nodded and said, “Don’t worry about it. It’s just that you’ve given me a lot to think about and not much explanation to go with it.”

 “I can’t,” Leo replied. “At least, not here.” He looked around at the other patrons and then back at Hubot 97 pointedly.

She took the hint. “But you will tell me?”

“If that’s what it’ll take.”

“That _is_ what it will take,” Hubot 97 confirmed. She slid out of the bench seat and stood up.  “I’ll be in touch.” When Leo raised a skeptical eyebrow at her, she added, “ _Soon_. Check the forum.”

Leo let out a deep sigh and then nodded ruefully. As Hubot 97’s steps echoed against the linoleum flooring, he hunched over in the seat and leaned both elbows on the table dejectedly.

But then she stopped. “Mattie,” she said, making Leo turn around in his seat and look at her in confusion. “It’s Mattie. Short for Matilda.”

 _Her name. She was trusting him with her name._ As she saw the recognition dawn on Leo’s face, Mattie smiled. Leo couldn’t help but smile back, and this time it reached his eyes. 


	3. A Leap of Faith

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so it took me a few days to get back to this one (rl has been not the greatest to me of late), but hopefully the fact that the chapter is long makes up for it?
> 
> And thanks for all the lovely comments! They absolutely make my day! <3
> 
> Hopefully, you will enjoy Mattie and Leo's latest encounter. :)

*010101010*

Leo heaved a deep sigh as he tucked his hands behind his head, lying across one of the bench seats in the disused night club that he and Max were currently using as a shelter. Night had fallen and in order to mask their presence, he and Max had turned off all the lights except for a small nightlight behind the bar. The assorted items scattered in the pale glow’s path created hulking shadows on the wall above Leo’s head. He was much too old to fear the dark, but he did feel like it was a metaphor for the way his life was currently going: surrounded by huge, shapeless burdens and a multitude of faceless men hunting them.

Why his father had thought that this haunted half-life he’d gifted Leo with would be preferable to an early and admittedly tragic death, he didn’t know. _Or perhaps the decision wasn’t based on me at all,_ he mused morbidly as he reached out one hand to retrieve his charging cord from the floor. _Maybe it was simply about the science; the challenge to see whether or not he could do it._ The amount of attention he’d paid to Leo before the accident versus afterward certainly upheld that theory, especially when the post-surgical attention he’d received from his father was mostly limited to checking to make sure Leo’s hardware remained in working order.

As Leo pulled the bandage away from his damaged port site, he hissed in pain as the already raw skin around the gash pulled momentarily before the dried blood holding it in place gave way.

Instantly, he heard the chirp of Max powering up out of charge mode. “Leo?” Max whispered, “Are you all right?”

“Yeah,” he said, a groan belying his statement as he fished around inside himself for his wires. “Just trying to charge.”

“Would you like me to assist you?” Max asked pleasantly.

“No, I’ve got it,” Leo replied as he attached himself to the clamp of the cable. He hissed involuntarily as the initial surge of electricity flooded his system, but the feeling quickly subsided into its more familiar pulsing beat and his tightened muscles relaxed in response.

Ever since they’d had to abandon their supplies in the scrapyard, Leo had taken to charging as often as possible. Whilst food was Leo’s preferred method of supplying power to his body, their need to lie low had all but ruled out his ability to scavenge for new provisions; hence why he was lying in the dark, connected to a power supply for the third time today. Unlike his brothers and sisters, Leo didn’t have a meter to determine his remaining energy levels. However, through years of practice, Leo had gotten better at reading the signs. He was not in any real need of charging, but his current life was too unpredictable at the minute to pass up any opportunity to top off.

Besides, as much as Leo hated to admit it, his synthetic brain seemed to work better when artificially powered.

Leo’s mind wandered back to that afternoon at the diner, and how he’d come one baby step closer to discovering where Mimi was.  He had been through hell and back already, wading through the sewer of London’s underbelly, chasing her faint trail.  Now, he was _so close_ to finding Mia, yet Leo had never felt less sure that he’d come out of the ordeal unscathed.

He hated that Hubot97— _Mattie,_ he corrected mentally—still held all the cards. All he had to go on was her word that she would contact him again, and Leo was not exactly comfortable with the idea of trusting humans after all he'd been through…even a human as intelligent and resourceful as her.

 _And pretty. Don’t forget pretty,_ Leo’s subconscious supplied helpfully. Leo snorted aloud at that. As if he **_could_** forget. In fact, his mind seemed rather preoccupied at the minute with making a case study of Mattie’s hair, the way that it shimmered with glints of copper when the sun hit it; of her eyes, and how their soft greenish-golden-brown colour reminded him of warm autumn afternoons spent leaf collecting with Fred; of her mouth, either pursed with annoyance or curled in a smile, but always the exact same shade of his mother’s favourite roses…

Max’s knowing voice shattered through Leo’s distraction. “You’re thinking about her again.”

“About whom?” Leo demanded to know, unaware of how brittle and on-edge he sounded.

“Mattie. You’re thinking about her.”

“No, I’m not,” he protested, though he knew the defence wouldn’t help. Sometimes Max was far too perceptive for his own good…or at least, for Leo’s peace of mind.

“You are,” Max replied, acting as if Leo’s denial had been a confirmation instead.

Leo harrumphed disgruntledly and turned to roll away from his brother.

Not that that stopped him. “There’s no shame in it, Leo,” Max continued softly. “She is close to your age, quick-witted and smart, and aesthetically pleasing to the eye. It is no wonder that you would notice her.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Leo grumbled into the seat’s backrest.

Max’s words had an uncharacteristically sharp edge to them as he responded. “Whilst I am not human, I do understand a bit about human interactions, and about the concepts of attraction and chemistry. Your body language changed when you were with her, Leo...softened, if you will. And you spoke to her about Beatrice, which you _never_ do.”

“She, in turn, reacted to your plea and returned to the table. She contemplated how you’d look without your beard and teased you about your method of dress. She reached out to share your pain and blushed when she’d realised she’d done it. Mattie likes you, Leo; and you like her.”

“She is a means to an end, Max,” Leo corrected forcefully. “She is our ticket to finding Mia, and that’s _all_ she is.”

“If that’s what you wish to believe,” Max countered.

Leo’s diatribe about Max minding his own damned business was interrupted before it began by a tinny ping that issued from the laptop. “What was that?” he asked instead.

Max leaned forward into the glow of the screen and tapped a few keys. “A new message on the Headcracker forum. It’s from Hubot97.”

 _That_ got Leo moving. He was up and had nearly closed the gap between himself and the laptop before he realised that his charging cord was still attached and trailing behind him.

Max was already sliding over a seat so that Leo could sit down in front of the computer. “Yep, Leo, you were right. Mattie means nothing to you,” he teased, his emerald eyes twinkling with amusement. “I can see that now.”

“Shut up,” Leo muttered under his breath as he logged into his account.

Leo double-clicked on the New Mail icon. The message that popped up was short and to the point:

**Hubot97 requests private chat with User885. Accept? Y/N**

Rather than respond to the yes or no question, Leo fired back another message:

**Let me set up a secure room and I’ll send you an invite, all right?**

Mattie’s response was nearly immediate.

**Okay.**

Leo’s fingers flew over the keys as he set up firewalls to protect against listening bots or other malware and rerouted his IP through about a hundred different servers before he messaged Mattie with the unique address for the chat room he’d created.

After a moment, her handle popped up in the Room Occupants window.

**User885: You wanted to talk to me?**

**Hubot97: Yeah.**

There was a long pause and then,

**Hubot97: Okay, let’s say I believe you…**

**User885: About?**

**Hubot97: About Mia.**

Leo let out his breath in a gust of air that he didn’t realise he’d been holding.

**User885: What changed your mind?**

**Hubot97: I’m not saying that I’ve changed my mind necessarily, but…**

**User885: But…?**

**Hubot97: Well, something my mum just told me seems to corroborate your story.**

Leo’s heart started to pound with excitement.

**User885: Explain.**

**Hubot97: Well, my mum has thought ever since we got Anita that there was something off about her. Something different. So she and my dad brought her into Persona today for a full diagnostic. Turns out she’s not new like they’d thought. In fact, the tech said that Anita was very old; at least 14 years old.**

Leo was almost afraid to ask, but he had to.

**User885: Did they find anything else…different about her?**

Leo pictured Mattie’s shrug.

**Hubot97: If they did, my mum didn’t say so.**

Leo didn’t know whether to be relieved that Mia’s secret had not been revealed or horrified that her root code hadn’t been found by the technician.

**User885: Did your parents receive a printed report from Persona?**

**Hubot97: Probably, but I don’t know where it is. My mum only mentioned it to me in passing on my way upstairs.**

**User885: Well, if you get a chance, will you have a look at it and let me know if you see anything else unusual on the report?**

A pause, then:

**Hubot97: What should I be looking for?**

_Any signs of sentience,_ Leo wanted to say, but couldn’t; not now, not yet. Instead, he hedged:

**User885: Just…anything different.**

Apparently, Mattie had a tendency to type faster when she was annoyed.

**Hubot97: Lying doesn’t become you, Leo. Now stop being an arse and tell me what I’m looking for.**

Leo massaged at his forehead with his fingers. It was actually a bit unnerving how well Mattie could read him, even hindered by the impersonal anonymity of the internet. Finally, he typed:

**User885: Anything that could be tied to that root code you downloaded.**

**Hubot97: Assuming that actually _was_ a root code.**

Leo could practically hear the exact pitch and intonation of Mattie’s sarcasm in his head and smiled to himself at the return of her sass.

**User885: Trust me, it was.**

**Hubot97: Well, you’re not giving me a lot to go on when it comes to trust, Leo. At the diner, you promised you’d tell me more.**

Leo hunched down in his chair as if the motion in itself would offer him protection from where he knew Mattie was leading.

**User885: And?**

**Hubot97: And here we are. If you want my help, then you’re gonna have to give me _something_. **

Leo closed his eyes briefly in dread, but gamely replied:

**User885: What do you want to know?**

**Hubot97: Well, first of all, why do you have a Synth that acts as if it thinks for itself and even scolds you when you’re being rude?**

_Leave it to her to cut right to the heart of the thing,_ Leo thought grimly, but there was simply no way he could answer that without putting them all in danger.

**User885: I can’t tell you that.**

**Hubot97: Yeah, right. I had a feeling that you weren’t gonna keep up your end of the bargain. Fine then, I’m out of here.**

_Shit!_ Leo cursed in his head. _Damage control. Damage control…_

**User885: Wait!**

_Yeah, that was smooth, Leo._

**Hubot97: What.**

It was amazing how the substitution of one piece of punctuation could make Leo feel he’d been judged and found lacking. He flinched as if Mattie had been right there next to him giving him her death glare.

**User885: Look…I’m sorry, okay? It’s just too dangerous to talk about. But I really do want to cooperate with you. Ask me something else, and I _swear_ I’ll answer it.**

**Hubot97: Fine. How’s _this_ for a question: Who the hell are you, why do you think you're in danger, and how the hell did your father manage to keep a 14-year-old Synth in perfect working order?**

_Well, fuck, he should have seen **that** coming. Out of the frying pan and into the fire._

At a loss, Leo met Max’s troubled eyes. “What the hell do I do, Max?” he asked plaintively. “If I don’t answer, she won’t help us and we may not be able to get Mia back. But if I do answer, it could put us all in danger.”

Max studied the cursor that blinked impatiently at the end of Leo’s username prompt and then glanced back at Leo.

“I think,” he said gently, “that sometimes there are no ‘right’ answers. When that happens, you have to go with what you feel.”

Leo frowned as he stared at his fingers resting on the keyboard.  

“So, what do you feel, Leo?” Max asked him. “Do you think that Mattie can be trusted?”

“Trusting humans is not exactly my strong suit, Max. You know that.”

“Yes, I do. But it’s got to happen sometime.”

 _Did it, though?_ Leo wondered. He wished like hell that things could go back to the way they were before his father killed himself, but logically, he knew they never could. They’d all be lucky at this point if they escaped this nightmare with their lives. He looked up at the motionless disco ball above his head as if the answer to his problems were written there. Of course, they weren't. He blinked back tears before taking a shuddering, bracing breath. Then, with shaking hands, he began to type.

**User885: The answer is as complicated as it is simple. My name is Leo Elster. My father was David.**

As he looked at what he’d written and sent, Leo felt sick to his stomach. He was literally placing his safety—and that of the rest of his family—in this girl’s hands.

When he read her response, Leo’s fragile hope shattered.

**Hubot97: That’s bullshit, Leo! I’ve read the history books. Everyone has! And I know for a fact that David Elster had no living heirs.**

_I knew it,_ he thought. _I never should have trusted her…_ His moment of weakness in the face of her disapproval made him resentful.

**User885: Yeah. And that’s exactly the problem.**

Again, Mattie’s reply was lightning fast.

**Hubot97: What the fuck is _that_ supposed to mean!?**

Leo knew he was being reckless, but he couldn’t seem to staunch the flow of venom once it had started.

**User885: I don’t know… Since you’re so bloody smart, why don’t _you_ riddle it out?**

Before she could even reply, Leo logged out and slammed the laptop closed.

“Leo…” Max began hesitantly, but Leo cut him off.

“Don’t,” he commanded, pointing an accusing finger at his brother. “Just…don’t.”

Max sighed deeply, but complied with his brother’s wishes. Meanwhile, Leo stomped back over to the bench seat and practically threw himself upon it.

Once Leo had finally stopped fidgeting and settled down into as comfortable a position as he could manage, Max whispered, “Good night, Leo.”

“The hell it is! Now we’ll probably have to leave London, leave Mia and Fred behind…perhaps for good.” That abhorrent thought had bile rising up in the back of Leo’s throat and hot tears stinging his eyes. _Why was he always failing them?_

“Maybe not,” Max countered, ever the optimist. “Mattie might decide to help us.”

“Fat chance of that after what I just did,” Leo admitted bitterly.

“You took a chance and you trusted her,” Max said. “Now you have to have faith that your gamble will pay off.”

 _First trust and now faith,_ Leo bemoaned silently. Max really was too naïve for his own good.

“That was quite a revelation you dropped in her lap, you know,” Max reminded Leo. “You can hardly blame her if she found it hard to believe. But Mattie seems to be an intelligent and caring young woman. Give her time, and you might just be surprised.”

Leo grunted noncommittally and turned his face to look at the moon. Its beauty was distorted and marred by the filthy window, and he felt himself reflected in it; a mirror held up to prove just how much he’d changed from what he’d been, and how much of a freak he’d become in comparison.

There had been a time when the world had seemed exciting and full of promise… but those dreams were long gone, buried under layer after layer of disappointment and disillusionment. Who could ever accept him as he was now—half man and half machine with his only family being a bunch of sentient Synths that weren’t supposed to exist?

 _No one, that’s who,_ he thought pessimistically.

It made Leo wonder for perhaps the thousandth time what the point of being alive was if it meant he was destined to be alone.


	4. When Needs Must

*010101010*

 

“Leo.”

Leo shook off the voice as if shooing a fly and rolled over to stuff his face into the crease between the seat back and the cushion.

“Leo,” Max said again, more vehemently this time.

With a deep, irritated sigh, Leo grumbled, “What is it, Max? Is it even morning yet?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, it is.”

Leo rolled over to glare at his brother only to be met with a pointedly raised eyebrow. “You have a message,” Max informed him, “from Hubot97.”

Groaning in pain as he forced himself into a sitting position, Leo asked, "What’s it say?”

“I don’t know, Leo,” Max replied primly. “It wasn’t addressed to me.”

“Oh, for fuck’s—” Leo disconnected his power cable with a hiss and stood, pushing past Max none too gently as he headed for the laptop. He slid his finger across the touch pad to wake up the monitor and dropped heavily into the chair that Max had vacated. In the middle of the screen was a pop-up box that proclaimed that User885 had a new private message. Leo hovered his pointer over the window and double tapped the pad.

The window morphed and enlarged to show the message content.

**_From: Hubot97_ **

**_Dated: Today @ 8:34AM_ **

**We need to talk.**

**07700 900 675**

 

“Well, that’s certainly concise and to the point,” Max mused over Leo’s shoulder.

“You think?” Leo shot back sarcastically, fishing around in his coat pocket for his mobile.

Max just smiled at him indulgently and shook his head as if he found Leo’s surly attitude amusing.

“Is this your way of gloating?” Leo demanded.

Max shrugged one shoulder as his smile grew. “Perhaps. I did tell you that—”

“Yes, well you can hold that thought, Max,” Leo interrupted. “We even don’t know what she wants yet.”

“Would it be wrong of me to point out that logically Mattie would simply have not contacted you again if she’d completely discounted what you’d said?”

“Yes,” Leo replied drolly. “Yes, it would.” He typed in Mattie’s mobile number and hit 'Send'.

“Matilda’s mobile,” a pleasantly antiseptic voice answered. A very _familiar_ voice…

“Mia!?” Leo gasped down the line, so stunned that he nearly dropped his own mobile device.

“My name is Anita,” Mia’s voice demurred politely. “Are you ringing for Matilda?”

_She didn’t recognize me. She didn’t recognize my voice,_ Leo thought, repressing a shiver of revulsion. _This is so much worse than I thought…_

“Hello?”

“Yes, I’m sorry,” Leo stammered hurriedly, not wanting Mia/Anita to ring off. Despite the acute pain it caused Leo’s heart that Mia didn’t know his voice, losing hers after hearing it for the first time in two months would have been infinitely worse. “May I speak with Mattie, please?”

“And whom may I say is ringing?”

“Leo,” replied gruffly, blinking back the sting in his eyes. “Leo Elster.”

Leo ignored the increasingly curious and hopeful look on Max’s face. _We’ll get her back,_ Leo vowed to himself. _We have to._ The alternative was unthinkable.

Rather than handing off the mobile, Leo heard Mia’s slightly muffled voice say, “There is a Leo Elster on the line for you, Mattie.”

“About bloody time,” was Mattie’s biting reply.

“It is not advisable for you to speak on a mobile device whilst operating a vehicle,” Mia’s voice cautioned, and it was the most mechanical Leo’d ever heard her sound. It was so disturbing that it made gooseflesh rise on his arms.

“You don’t say. Well, that’s too bad, because I need to talk to him, so put him on.”

There was a shuffling noise and then Mattie’s voice demanded, “What took you so long!?”

“I’m sorry,” Leo snapped back. “Excuse me for thinking that I’d never hear from you again after last night. Besides, it hasn’t even been an hour since you sent that message!”

“Yeah, well—” There was a screeching noise in the background and Mattie cursed under her breath, “—suffice it to say that all hell has broken loose since then.”

“What’s happened?”

“Look, I can’t—” Another screeching sound and the blare of a car horn interrupted her this time, “—hang on, Leo.”

Leo heard Mia’s voice in the background. “Would you like me to drive, Matilda?”

“Yes, I bloody well would!”

Mattie said it so loudly that Leo had to pull the receiver away from his ear to rub the ringing sound out of it. There was the slamming of a car door and then Mattie was back on the line. “Leo? Leo, are you still there?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” he reassured her.

Before Mattie could say anything else, Leo heard Mia ask, “What is our destination, Matilda?”

“I don’t know, Anita. Just…drive for now.”

“Sorry,” Mattie muttered at Leo. “It’s been a trying morning.”

_Apparently,_ Leo thought sarcastically, but did not say. “So, what did you want to talk to me about?” he asked, trying hard to not let his discomfort about Mia’s strange behaviour bleed into his voice.

“Well, originally I wanted to tell you that after _someone_ dropped a massive bomb on me and then did a runner last night,” Mattie accused, “I looked into what you’d said and had some more questions for you. But now, we’ve got bigger problems.”

Dread formed a tight ball in Leo’s stomach. With how badly everything was going of late, he was almost afraid to ask. “What?”

“This morning at breakfast, my father told the rest of the family about Anita being so old. He was all for returning her, but the rest of us out-voted him. I thought that would be the end of it, but apparently not because the next thing I knew, I’m opening the door to a guy from Persona who says my dad had called to have Anita picked up and recycled.”

Even knowing that Mia was in the car with Mattie, Leo’s heart caught in his throat from the implication. “Oh my God,” he whispered, mortified.

“Yeah,” Mattie agreed soberly. “And if even a _shred_ of what you’d told me was true, there was no way I could let that happen to her. So I did the only thing I could think of under the circumstances: kidnapped the family Synth. Or, well… _Synth-_ napped her, I suppose.”

Overwhelmed by emotion, tears pricked at Leo’s eyes again, but this time they were from gratitude. “Thank you. I mean, really…thank you, for taking a chance on us. On _me_.”

“I’m not saying you’ve convinced me, mind,” she warned him. “Not yet, anyway. But I’ll let you try to once I get there.”

“Wait, what do you mean ‘once you get here’?”

“Look, Leo,” Mattie huffed. “I’m literally on the lam. It would be a great thing right now if I could not be _out on the road where I can get caught_. I have no idea how long I’ve got before my parents call the police on me, especially since I don’t have a licence yet.”

“You stole the family car and you don’t even know how to drive?” Despite the seriousness of the situation, Leo couldn’t help but smile.

“Given the alternative, it’s a good job I did, isn’t it?” Mattie bristled.

“’No, I know,” Leo hastened to reassure her. “I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am, Mattie.”

“Save the kissing up for when I get there. Wherever _there_ is…”

Leo took the hint. “It’s probably easier—” _and safer_ , he thought "— if I text it to you.”

“Fine,” Mattie agreed, “but if you screw me over, Leo Elster, I swear to God that I will hunt you down and kick your arse, bodyguard Synth or no. Don’t think I won’t.”

“Never. Besides, Max is no bodyguard, trust me. He’s very gentle.”

“Whatever. I very much doubt that he’d just stand by and let me beat the snot out of his owner.”

“He might if he thought I deserved it,” Leo admitted, aiming a small smirk when he caught Max staring at him quizzically.

“You could send me that address anytime now, Leo…”

God, but Leo loved Mattie's snark.

Normally, just the thought of giving away something as important as his location would give Leo hives. But with Mattie, it didn’t even cross his mind to deny her. His thumbs flew across the keys and then hit ‘Send’. Putting the mobile back up to his ear, Leo said, “Okay, it’s on the way.”

“Good.” Mattie had barely gotten the word out before her mobile chimed to tell her she’d received a text. A moment later, she announced, “Got it. See you soon.”

“All right. Be safe.” _And please, please don’t have anyone following you…_

“What’s going on? What was all that about?” Max asked the moment Leo rang off.

“Mattie’s coming here,” Leo explained to his brother with a smile, “and she’s bringing Mia with her.”


End file.
